MagicWeek Magic Book Shop UK books

<body> <p>MagicWeek Book Shop featuring: close-up magic, card tricks, mind magic, magic videos, coin magic, stage magic MagicWeek has featured a number of magic books, videos and CD's in its News section over the last few years. Here's a selection taken from previous News pages, complete with the original text. All can be ordered from MagicWeek in association with Amazon.co.uk Dominic Wood's Magic Book has just been published by Bodley Head Children's Books. Jean Hugard's classic Encyclopedia of Card Tricks has just been updated with a new foreword by Magic Circle president Michael Bailey - you can order it in time for Christmas (and right now there's 20% off!) Nick Einhorn's The Art of Magic and Sleight of Hand has just been published by Lorenz Books and is arguably the finest magic book for general release since Mark Wilson's excellent Complete Course in Magic back in '75, and, before that, Henry Hay's The Amateur Magician's Handbook in 1950! This is the sort of book that can stimulate an interest in magic that will last a lifetime. The production values are high, and the book is big... with 120 tricks, 250 pages, and 1,000 colour photographs. Each section has an introduction, so for example, the Mind Magic section talks about such performers as David Berglas and Graham P Jolley before delving into the magic. Excellent in every way this book gets my highest recommendation - it's targeted at both teenagers and adults alike. Nick Einhorn is a member of The Inner Magic Circle and became The Magic Circle Close-up Magician of the Year in 1996. Currently he is coaching two actors for Bright Young Things, an upcoming movie being directed by Stephen Fry. More Dice This time in the shape of a new book from Ricky Jay. Ricky Jay takes us from one of the earliest forms, astragali - the heel bones of hoofed quadrupeds, to the myriad types of cheating with dice in the modern era. We discover that Augustus, Caligula and Nero were all inveterate players, that Queen Elizabeth issued an order against the manufacture of false dice in 1598 and that dice made from celluloid in 1869 remained stable for decades and then suddenly began to decompose. David Blaine's Mysterious Stranger (published by Villard - see last week) suddenly disappeared from the Amazon.co.uk catalogue midweek to be replaced by a different version to be published by Channel 4 on November 8th... very mysterious. Modern Enchantments by Simon During is now available from MagicWeek in association with Amazon.co.uk. Here's the synopsis taken from the Amazon website: Simon During suggests, has helped shape modern culture. Devoted to this deceptively simple proposition, During's work, written over the course of a decade, gets to the aesthetic questions at the very heart of the study of culture. How can the most ordinary arts - and by 'magic,' During means not the supernatural, but the special effects and conjuring of magic shows - affect people? This text takes us deeply into the history and workings of modern secular magic, from the legerdemain of Isaac Fawkes in 1720, to the return of real magic in nineteenth-century spiritualism, to the role of magic in the emergence of the cinema. Through the course of this history, During shows how magic performances have drawn together heterogeneous audiences, contributed to the moulding of cultural hierarchies, and extended cultural technologies and media at key moments, sometimes introducing spectators into rationality and helping to disseminate scepticism and publicise scientific innovation. In a more revealing argument still, Modern Enchantments shows that magic entertainments have increased the sway of fictions in our culture and helped define modern society's image of itself." Over 350 pages. 52 Ways to Magic America by James Flint looks like an essential read. A wry story of illusion and deception from the fading coastal resorts of England. Marty has been practising magic since he was eight. He loves the attention, not least at school where his deft card tricks offer him a way round the embarrassment of actually talking to girls. But how can any serious magician who dreams of following his heroes Siegfried & Roy to the glittering lights of Las Vegas, still be employing his little sister as his assistant? A post-show drinks party at the Young Magician of the Year at the Crucible in Sheffield, (the last event in the calendar before the World Snooker Championships) offers Marty's faltering career a way forward. The award winning duo of Darren Watt and Terri Electric are going their separate ways and it doesn't take long for Marti to coax Terri into becoming his partner on stage and in bed. Terri is everything Marty could dream of, a talented gymnast, an able assistant and a spitting image of Princess Diana. From cabaret bookings in Brighton, Eastbourne and Worthing the pair finally hit the big time with a summer's booking in the Caribbean. A summer is all it is though. Even before their sun-kissed skin has had chance to fade both Marty and Terri know that the autumn circuit back in the UK is going to be tough. By the time they reach the annual Magician's Convention in Blackpool on a bleak weekend in February it is clear that their act needs freshening up. But it is amazing what can happen when you are down on your luck at the top of the Blackpool Tower on a wet Sunday afternoon... The Caribbean, the Blackpool convention, Eastbourne... it all sounds a little too close for comfort for me. Just published and available now with a 20% discount via MagicWeek in association with Amazon.co.uk - to order Geller's Life Signs : Transform Your Life Through Your Personality has just been published. I'm not too sure about its intended use but the contents may be of interest to anyone who's dabbled in mind magic. For more information or to order a copy from MagicWeek in association with Amazon.co.uk Marvin Kaye inspired many a budding magician years ago with his beginners book The Complete Magician. The Creative Magician's Handbook: A Guide to Tricks, Illusions, and Performance is designed to turn the unpolished performer into an entertaining magician. Featuring fail-safe magic, sleight of hand magic, card tricks and mental magic, as well as the basic principles of showmanship.</p> </body>